AIM 2: How did the Dred Scott Decision Increase Tensions?

As part of the Compromise of 1850, Congress passed a strong Fugitive Slave Law. Northerners opposed this law which required them to catch or turn in run away slaves or to permit bounty hunters to come to free states to capture fugitive slaves. Harsh punishments were imposed on those who assisted these fugitive slaves. Even though there was racism in the North, these laws were considered unfair and inflamed anti-slavery feeling in the North.

The Republican Party (today also called the G.O.P.; the Grand Old Party) was created in 1856, on a platform of preventing the spread of slavery into the new states that would be created out of the new western territories.

Dread Scott, a slave who had briefly lived in Ohio (a free state) sued for his freedom after his owner’s death. With the help of abolitionist attorneys, his case reached the Supreme Court who rules against him. The Court said that Scott could not sue because he was not a citizen, and because he lived in Missouri, a slave state, he was bound by that state’s laws. The Court also said that since a slave was property they had no right to remove a man’s property. Most importantly they said that Congress had no right to ban slavery in any of the new territories, which was a part of the Missouri Compromise. This voiding of the Missouri Compromise made Southerners happy because now slavery could now spread to any of the new territories. However the final decision if a state would be free or slave was still up to the voters.

John Brown, an extreme abolitionist, attacked a govt. arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Va. In order to steal weapons to arm slaves & create a slave revolt. Brown & many of his followers were captured & hung. Brown was treated as a martyr for the abolitionist cause.

HOMEWORK: Read pgs. 472 to top of 475 & pg. 481 to pg. 484. Do pg. 470 Main Ideas # 3A & B. Do pg. 471 Terms & Names # 1-3 & pg. 481 Terms & Names # 1-4, & 6. Do pg. 476 ques. 4 & 10